Air-inflated beams or airbeams have been used to create a variety of structures including tents, shelters, and hangars. Some of the current airbeam configurations include a large number of inflation points, which has been found to be undesirable because the large number of inflation points creates an overly complicated assembly process. Additionally, many prior art embodiments feature an airbeam structure that requires a base and/or tent shell material in order to support the structure.
In various configurations, one or more airbeams may be used to support a structure, such as a tent. For example, a single airbeam may form two “legs” of a structure. Two airbeams may be used to form four “legs”. In prior designs that featured two or more airbeams, the airbeams had to cross over one another, forming an “X” design. Although standard tent poles typically cross over one another without an issue, when using airbeams the crossing over of one airbeam with another airbeam creates a very bulky design. The crossing of the airbeams creates a loss of headroom, which becomes even more of a problem as three or more airbeams are crossed. Therefore, there is a need for a device that enables bending and/or coupling of the airbeams to be achieved at specific locations, such that two or more airbeams can be coupled to one another within the same plane, without loss of headroom. The device should also enable the entire multiple airbeam structure to be inflated from a single inflation point and should also allow the airbeam structure to be free standing.